Most of us know about teaching short and long vowel sounds, but what about r-controlled vowels?
A r-controlled vowel is a vowel followed by the letter r, and the vowel does not make a short or a long vowel sound.
When you have a student who is decoding based on phonics, you quickly learn that these words are tricky, and need to be taught.
Some examples of this vowel pattern are:
/ar/: arm, barn, car, smart, shark, park
/ir/: bird, fir, girl, skirt, sir, stir
/or/: born, for, inform, north, short, order
/ur/: curve, hurt, nurse, surf, turn, purple
Teach students about r-controlled vowels, and the influence the r has on the vowel. This can be done through teaching spelling patterns and word lists.
